Post by Miguel D'Cruz on Apr 15, 2012 14:06:50 GMT -7
Life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness… These three basic rights are guaranteed in the most envied government system in the world and thought up by some of the most intelligent men America has ever known. Whether you know it or not, you enjoy these rights every day of your life. Is it then fair to deny you a democracy on something as trivial as a website? We find that a website should not be like a dictatorship decided solely by one person and his/her few ‘advisors’. A website is made by more than just the admins. True enough, we made this site- but you, the members, complete it. This site is nothing without the people who join. We, the 4 original and only admins, see ourselves not as kings and queens, but as the over-arching police force that exists only for the good of the site and we are directed and influenced by the people who know best: the members.
This site and this document are both heavily influenced by our own experience with another role-playing site. Suffice it to say that it did not end well. The communication on that site between admins and members was poor. We were not informed of or consulted on very important rule changes that had everything to do with us. One incident in particular was a change that effected our characters to the point that it wasn’t looking like we could keep our characters. We were very concerned and VERY angry, and justly so. After the site exploded again (the second time, as it were) and we were dead set in leaving and never going back, we found out that we were going to be grandfathered. Of course, we were told this only after one of us (Miguel) accused one of the admins of purposely starting war and firing some insults. At that point, said admin finally relinquished the truth of us being grandfathered in. It then turned into a laugh or cry situation. It was… ridiculous. If everyone is guilty and a victim… You’ve screwed up something like no other. We laughed it off, left, never looked back.
From this site and the explosions on it, we firmly decided what we did NOT want to do. First and foremost- communication is SO important. We want you to know what we’re up to at all times. If we are even considering changing the rules or adding something to the site or whatever, we want you to know. If you feel like we didn’t clarify and get your opinions on something, PLEASE let us know. It’s hard for us to understand how you feel. But it’s easy for us to make changes that we like. We need your help with that. Our way of preventing this problem takes the form of weekly polls. Every week there will be a poll and you can vote and there is the handy dandy 'Feedback Section' where you can leave your comments. Also, we will make an honest effort to not show favoritism and be as fair as possible. Friend or foe, you break the rules you suffer the consequences. As such, we will be as unbiased as possible. All of us have no bone with any race or gender and hope that we do not, in any way, come off as such.
Our biggest wish on this site is for the admins and members to coexist peacefully. Without drama, hate, spite, and just plain explosions. When there are problems, and there may be, ALL of the admins will know, or should know, and we will discuss things openly, together, with the you, the members. No lies, no games, no politics. Just flat out ‘here’s the problem’ ‘okay, let’s fix it.’ BAM. This is the stuff that real solutions are born from.
Regardless, a lot of these problems can be avoided by just plain being respectful. Which isn’t to say, ‘be respectful to us especially’. If we have done something to make you mad that is a HUGE problem to us. In our minds, being disrespectful to another member is worse than being disrespectful to us. We’re big people and we can take it.
All of that said, we feel that you, the members, should have the power to control some of the happenings of this site. Some admins will tell you that if you don’t like how they run the place, to leave. Easier said than done. We know. Some will even tell you that they’re admins and can do whatever they want. We would call that an abuse of power, thank you very much. Being an admin of a site doesn’t make you a divine god. This set of beliefs that we have encountered inspired this document. Our true signatures at the bottom of this document seal the deal. Should we ever any of our own aforesaid beliefs- consider this contract your sword. We have bound ourselves to it and if you think we aren’t holding up our end of the bargain- WHAM. You can probably find your proof here. And just like that- whatever it is that we have done, we can’t argue. We’re wrong. You’re right. How do you want us to fix the problem?
We, Miguel, Rusty, Luke, and Ikenna, all swear to uphold and obey our own rules, to show no bias or favoritism towards any member based on race, gender, friendship, or past confrontations, to always ask for your opinions on site updates before they happen, to listen to your thoughts and opinions, and to not delete/punish you because you spoke your mind against us.
Luke's even more specific pledge: "I..Luke..do swear to uphold everything that has been said in the above document. If I screw up, please, by all means...tell me. I don't know unless you tell me."
[our sig’s here]
Ikenna
*Subnote: As we said, "we won't discriminate based off past confrontations"- there are... Two people this applies to. And you ought to know who you are. (If you're a new member and you have no idea who we are- then we promise that this does not apply to you.) That said, neither of you two will EVER be given the title of moderator. Flat out. There it is. Why? One of you shows WAY too much favoritism to your friends, which isn't fair and it WILL NOT happen on this site. Admin or moderator. The other, when you get power (you were an admin last time) it goes straight to your head. So here it is, in writing: Our adamant decision to deny you any position other than being a member is based off nothing more that past experience. Like it or not.
If you two have any questions, Miguel would love to talk to you, but you'd be better off talking to Ikenna. Or Rusty. But Ikenna is the one who would be much nicer. Ask Miguel only if you're strong enough to handle the pure and flat-out truth.
This site and this document are both heavily influenced by our own experience with another role-playing site. Suffice it to say that it did not end well. The communication on that site between admins and members was poor. We were not informed of or consulted on very important rule changes that had everything to do with us. One incident in particular was a change that effected our characters to the point that it wasn’t looking like we could keep our characters. We were very concerned and VERY angry, and justly so. After the site exploded again (the second time, as it were) and we were dead set in leaving and never going back, we found out that we were going to be grandfathered. Of course, we were told this only after one of us (Miguel) accused one of the admins of purposely starting war and firing some insults. At that point, said admin finally relinquished the truth of us being grandfathered in. It then turned into a laugh or cry situation. It was… ridiculous. If everyone is guilty and a victim… You’ve screwed up something like no other. We laughed it off, left, never looked back.
From this site and the explosions on it, we firmly decided what we did NOT want to do. First and foremost- communication is SO important. We want you to know what we’re up to at all times. If we are even considering changing the rules or adding something to the site or whatever, we want you to know. If you feel like we didn’t clarify and get your opinions on something, PLEASE let us know. It’s hard for us to understand how you feel. But it’s easy for us to make changes that we like. We need your help with that. Our way of preventing this problem takes the form of weekly polls. Every week there will be a poll and you can vote and there is the handy dandy 'Feedback Section' where you can leave your comments. Also, we will make an honest effort to not show favoritism and be as fair as possible. Friend or foe, you break the rules you suffer the consequences. As such, we will be as unbiased as possible. All of us have no bone with any race or gender and hope that we do not, in any way, come off as such.
Our biggest wish on this site is for the admins and members to coexist peacefully. Without drama, hate, spite, and just plain explosions. When there are problems, and there may be, ALL of the admins will know, or should know, and we will discuss things openly, together, with the you, the members. No lies, no games, no politics. Just flat out ‘here’s the problem’ ‘okay, let’s fix it.’ BAM. This is the stuff that real solutions are born from.
Regardless, a lot of these problems can be avoided by just plain being respectful. Which isn’t to say, ‘be respectful to us especially’. If we have done something to make you mad that is a HUGE problem to us. In our minds, being disrespectful to another member is worse than being disrespectful to us. We’re big people and we can take it.
All of that said, we feel that you, the members, should have the power to control some of the happenings of this site. Some admins will tell you that if you don’t like how they run the place, to leave. Easier said than done. We know. Some will even tell you that they’re admins and can do whatever they want. We would call that an abuse of power, thank you very much. Being an admin of a site doesn’t make you a divine god. This set of beliefs that we have encountered inspired this document. Our true signatures at the bottom of this document seal the deal. Should we ever any of our own aforesaid beliefs- consider this contract your sword. We have bound ourselves to it and if you think we aren’t holding up our end of the bargain- WHAM. You can probably find your proof here. And just like that- whatever it is that we have done, we can’t argue. We’re wrong. You’re right. How do you want us to fix the problem?
We, Miguel, Rusty, Luke, and Ikenna, all swear to uphold and obey our own rules, to show no bias or favoritism towards any member based on race, gender, friendship, or past confrontations, to always ask for your opinions on site updates before they happen, to listen to your thoughts and opinions, and to not delete/punish you because you spoke your mind against us.
Luke's even more specific pledge: "I..Luke..do swear to uphold everything that has been said in the above document. If I screw up, please, by all means...tell me. I don't know unless you tell me."
[our sig’s here]
Ikenna
*Subnote: As we said, "we won't discriminate based off past confrontations"- there are... Two people this applies to. And you ought to know who you are. (If you're a new member and you have no idea who we are- then we promise that this does not apply to you.) That said, neither of you two will EVER be given the title of moderator. Flat out. There it is. Why? One of you shows WAY too much favoritism to your friends, which isn't fair and it WILL NOT happen on this site. Admin or moderator. The other, when you get power (you were an admin last time) it goes straight to your head. So here it is, in writing: Our adamant decision to deny you any position other than being a member is based off nothing more that past experience. Like it or not.
If you two have any questions, Miguel would love to talk to you, but you'd be better off talking to Ikenna. Or Rusty. But Ikenna is the one who would be much nicer. Ask Miguel only if you're strong enough to handle the pure and flat-out truth.